Have you recently incurred an injury and are struggling with pain and mobility issues? If so, you should start physical therapy immediately. Schedule an appointment with an experienced and licensed physical therapist practising in your area. He or she will examine your injury and inform you about the duration for which you will need the treatment for complete recovery.
It leads to the question, “How does undergoing physical therapy help the injured?” The section below answers the question.
Top 10 Benefits of Physical Therapy for Injury Recovery
1. Enables Better Pain Management
One of the worst after-effects of an injury is pain. You’ll experience a significant reduction in injury-related pain after undergoing just a few sessions of physical therapy. When done by an experienced therapist, you may even experience complete elimination of the pain.
For pain management, these therapists typically use a combination of manual therapy methods and therapeutic exercises. The effects of physical therapy on the intensity of pain will be most prominent in patients recovering after fractures, whiplash, disc herniation, etc.
2.Improves Blood Flow
Some injuries result in impaired blood flow in the patient’s body. Physical therapy is the best way to manage this problem. Range of motion exercises, heat therapy, and blood flow restriction are some techniques used to increase blood circulation. They work together to improve blood circulation and reduce swelling in the injured body part. This, in turn, allows more nutrients and oxygen to reach the area and speed up the healing process.
3. Accelerates Healing
Physical therapy has the power to treat an injury while improving the mental health of the patient. Your therapist will use exercises that will make your muscles and bones stronger and give you the psychological strength to lead a normal, independent life.
4. Eliminates Mobility Issues
It’s common for injured people to face mobility issues even after their pain subsides. You may find it difficult to sit, stand, walk, lift a limb, and so on. Your physical therapy sessions will include exercises that can eliminate these problems by stretching your muscles and strengthening them. Depending on the status of your injury, your therapist can also teach you to move with assistive devices like walkers, crutches, or canes.
5. Increases Balance and Prevents Falls
Loss of balance is a common problem among patients who had to stay confined to a bed after incurring a serious injury. Lack of balance increases the injured individual’s chances of falls significantly. One of the main goals of physical therapy is to restore balance and prevent falls. Your therapist will assess your fall risk during your first meeting and plan your therapy accordingly.
6. Prevents Chronic Pain
You must undergo physical therapy for months after your injury to ensure that you don’t develop any chronic pain due to the injury. For best results, begin therapy as soon as possible, or immediately after your doctor advises you to start physical therapy. The longer you wait, the greater your chances of developing chronic pain in the injured area.
7. Decreases Your Chances of Facing Further Injuries
When you undergo physical therapy regularly for an extended period following your injury, your bones and muscles become stronger. Your joints will become more flexible, and you’ll experience notable improvement in your coordination. Experienced therapists can recognize the body parts with maximum skeletal and muscular weakness. They work on the identified parts and largely reverse the issues, reducing your susceptibility to accidents.
8. Helps Avoid Surgery
If you are undergoing therapy at a trusted place and under the supervision of a qualified and experienced physical therapist, your sessions may be as effective as surgery. Surgery leaves patients at risk of multiple debilitating side effects, which you can avoid by choosing physical therapy for recovery.
You may assume that the recovery time required by injured patients undergoing physical therapy would be longer than that of patients undergoing surgery. However, that’s a wrong perception as recovery from surgery often requires more time.
9. You Will Become Fitter Than You Were Before the Injury
Undergoing physical therapy for several months will make you a much stronger and fitter individual than you were before the injury. You will be able to walk faster, lift bigger weights, have an improved posture, and so on.
10. Improves Overall Health
Physical therapy can not only accelerate injury healing and improve mobility but can also make you a healthier person. Studies have proven that undergoing physical therapy helps prevent vascular conditions, lung diseases, and heart issues. It can make managing blood sugar levels easier for diabetes patients. Last, but not least, physical therapy reverses and prevents obesity, and thus, helps people avoid all related health issues.
Conclusion
If you want to get treated by the most renowned physical therapists in the Bronx and its surrounding areas, visit Magnet Health Multispecialty Clinic. They work with the most advanced machinery and stay up to date with new and effective physical therapy techniques.